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Over the weekend, at a WWF live event, Razor Ramon and 1-2-3 Kid had another altercation, leading WWF President Gorilla Monsoon to have doubts about Kid's ability to be impartial in tonight's championship main event, so he's ruling that it will now be non-title. This is messed up for several reasons. First, I get how Kid having an issue with Razor might raise doubts about his ability to be impartial. However, before that, he was known Razor's best friend and sometimes tag partner! Their friendship was well documented, so why is he allowed to be the referee in the first place?! How is that fair to challenger Sycho Sid? Wouldn't the fact that he's Razor's best buddy raise adequate doubts about his ability to be impartial? Seems like a very clear conflict of interest. Man, Gorilla's lucky Jesse Ventura was long gone by this point, because he'd have a field day with this. And that's not even the worst part! See, apparently this show exists in some weird, time travel portal centered in
Hunter Hearst Helmsley v Henry Godwinn: Helmsley attacks him during the entrances, and hits Henry with a baseball slide on the outside. He rams Godwinn into the steps out there, but makes the mistake of spraying perfume at Henry, and that gets Godwinn angry enough that he... slops himself? It's a strategy, since HHH is terrified of the slop, and since Godwinn knows he'll get disqualified if he uses the bucket on Helmsley, he opts to cover himself in it, and then HHH won't have a choice but to deal with the offensive slop during the match. That's actually interesting psychology. Slop psychology, but still. Hunter freaks out at the prospect, however, and takes off running - Godwinn chasing for a double countout at 1:35. HHH took a pretty nice bump on the floor while slipping in the slop there. This wasn't really a match, but an angle to continue building their feud for a later blow off. DUD
Survivor Series Slam Jam, with Dok Hendrix! And they're STILL hyping up the
Shawn Michaels wants to electrify the crowd, noting that he'll always work hard to steal the show, and give people something they've never seen before. This was the first time I can really remember where we heard a wrestler basically saying that their goal is to entertain the fans, and turn in great performances, which today is basically the motto of the entire locker room
Ahmed Johnson v Jake Steele: This is Ahmed's TV in-ring debut, as Shawn pops up on split screen to hype up their partnership in the Wild Card match for Survivor Series. Michaels looks like he's healed up nicely. Johnson squashes Steele in pretty sloppy fashion, while making pretty suggestive faces with his tongue for 1995 WWF TV. Pearl River Plunge finishes at 2:28. Afterwards, Vince catches up with Johnson at ringside to have a few words on Survivor Series, and man, I feel for the poor asshole in charge of closed captioning for the Network. To their credit, they actually make sense of what's being said! Nothing special as a match, but Ahmed's sloppy power offense was always fun to watch. DUD
Barry Didinsky wants you to throw $21 down on a Diesel calendar for 1996, just in time for his jump to WCW!
Vince hosts a face-to-face interview (via satellite) between WWF Champion Diesel and Bret Hart, ahead of their showdown at Survivor Series. I'm guessing they were in adjacent rooms somewhere, like the 'via satellite' firings in Up in the Air. Hart rightly notes that he was never pinned or made to submit to lose the WWF Title the year prior, and Diesel couldn't beat him when he got the first shot at the Royal Rumble. This was a good segment, with Hart nicely breaking down his motivations and advantages against the champion, with Diesel responding in his usual cool badass manner. I always liked the Hart/Diesel feuds, as their matches had strong, serious builds, with limited cartoony aspects
Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler do battle with Karate Fighters. Best part of this is McMahon being billed as an 'award winning broadcast journalist' without even a slight wink
Mabel v Roy Raymond: Young Rhyno gets to play one of the poor jerks tasked with carrying Mabel to the ring on a throne tonight. Undertaker appears on split screen to hype up his showdown with Mabel's team for Survivor Series as angry Barney squashes the jobber, and the announcers hype up the Hotline, where Jim Ross will discuss injuries to various guys scheduled for Survivor Series. How riveting! I can't wait to pay $2.00 a minute to hear about Dean Douglas' tummy ache, or whatever. Sign me up! At least WCW had quality 'click bait' for their hotline. Mabel with a belly-to-belly suplex at 3:02. DUD
Survivor Series promo, featuring the Bill Clinton impersonator. Man, they were ALL IN on this guy, weren't they? I'm surprised he didn't get an Intercontinental title run with this kind of sustained hype
This past weekend on Superstars, the Smoking Gunns defended the WWF Tag Team Title against Razor Ramon and 1-2-3 Kid, which ended in a disqualification, further widening the rift between the two pals
Razor Ramon v Sycho Sid: 1-2-3 Kid is the special guest referee for this one, and Ramon's Intercontinental title is not on the line. Razor looks weird with the white leather version of the title belt. Sid goes right at him, and chokes away against the ropes, but Razor fires back with a series of rights, and Sid takes a spill over the top. Back in, Ramon eats a big boot during a criss cross, and Sid stomps him for two. Really wild offense there. Sid with a chokeslam, and I'm surprised this crowd is reacting at all considering how long this damned taping has been going on. It's about four hours deep at this point. Sid works Razor over in dull fashion, but telegraphs a backdrop, and eats a kneelift. Razor's Edge, but Ramon gets backdropped over the top, and Ted DiBiase puts the boots to him, as Dean Douglas makes his way down. He jumps Razor on the floor as well, as Kid is conveniently distracted again and again. Back in, Sid hits a side suplex for two, and a legdrop is worth two. He goes to a rear chinlock next, as he continues to sleepwalk through this one. Honestly, Monsoon should have just said this is no longer a title match because Sid fucking sucks, and doesn't deserve one. At least that would make sense! Ramon escapes with a rather brutal looking electric chair, and hits Sid with a 2nd rope flying bulldog for two. Razor's Edge, but Kid helps Sid block the move, and the Powerbomb finishes up at 11:23. Razor even get's some of DiBiase's cash stuffed down his throat after the bell, and in a nice touch, it's a Canadian bill! This leads to even more time travel questions, as if Kid turned on Razor and joined the Corporation in this match that they were outright telling you was taped prior to last weeks episode, why the hell did Ramon still team up with him on the live shows that took place over the weekend before this aired? This was pretty terrible, just puttering along before the big finish. ½*
Backstage, Dean Douglas laughs it up with Owen Hart and Yokozuna over his attack on Razor, but Ramon shows up to attack him just as we go off the air
BUExperience: As far as a go home show, several Survivor Series matches got no mention at all here. They did get in some light build for the Darkside/Royals bout, and an actual physical altercation ahead of the Wild Card match, plus a strong final push for the main event, though. To be fair, this was taped the night after In Your House IV, literally a month before Survivor Series, so I guess the amount of stuff they could push with actual in-arena confrontations was somewhat limited. This is a pretty skippable episode overall, with terrible wrestling throughout, and nothing especially worth checking out aside from the Kid turn, and the strong Diesel/Hart segment.
Monday
Night Wars Rating Chart
11/13/95
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||
Show
|
RAW
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Nitro
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Rating
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2.6
|
2.0
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Total Wins
|
5
|
3
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Win Streak
|
2
|
|
Better Show (as of 11/6)
|
2
|
6
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